[Arken.ca]

I'm looking to paint a screen for my Panasonic Ax-200.


1. First some background. Currently its shooting a 130 inch image on a white wall. All the walls and ceiling are white, however I could paint the walls a light to medium brown or other neutral color. Landlord won't allow dark colors or any color other than white on the ceiling.


Room dimensions are 9 1/2 feet by 15 feet 7 inches. Projector is 13 feet 9 inches away from wall. I feel that it could use an increase in black levels, especially on scenes that feature both really dark and really bright areas, which tend to wash out the image.


2. I was considering going with a light gray paint, somewhere in the N8 to N8.5 range, probably one of the behr upw tints. I am thinking of screwing a MDF board precut to 60" by 107" to the wall studs. I also plan on taking down the image size to around 118 inches to increase brightness.


Any thoughts on whether this setup is any good? Given the distance and screen size the projection calculator gives me 21fl. Will a neutral gray work here and if so, how dark should I go? Or will it need some extra gain with a coat of poly or maybe use an aluminum mix? Would going from white walls to a medium brown flat paint make much difference? Any thoughts or criticisms is appreciated.

 

[tiddler]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Arken.ca /forum/post/15402219


I'm looking to paint a screen for my Panasonic Ax-200.


1. First some background. Currently its shooting a 130 inch image on a white wall. All the walls and ceiling are white, however I could paint the walls a light to medium brown or other neutral color. Landlord won't allow dark colors or any color other than white on the ceiling.


Room dimensions are 9 1/2 feet by 15 feet 7 inches. Projector is 13 feet 9 inches away from wall. I feel that it could use an increase in black levels, especially on scenes that feature both really dark and really bright areas, which tend to wash out the image.


2. I was considering going with a light gray paint, somewhere in the N8 to N8.5 range, probably one of the behr upw tints. I am thinking of screwing a MDF board precut to 60" by 107" to the wall studs. I also plan on taking down the image size to around 118 inches to increase brightness.


Any thoughts on whether this setup is any good? Given the distance and screen size the projection calculator gives me 21fl. Will a neutral gray work here and if so, how dark should I go? Or will it need some extra gain with a coat of poly or maybe use an aluminum mix? Would going from white walls to a medium brown flat paint make much difference? Any thoughts or criticisms is appreciated.

I would suggest an N8 shade of neutral gray for the screen. I would also suggest you consider using a neutral or near neutral gray for the wall colors if you can. The problem with using anything other than a neutral gray for the walls is that it will cause an imbalanced color of light to be reflected and therefore effect the color balance.


Here is a shade image to give you an idea of what the Munsel Shades look like:

I have seen photos of theater rooms that were painted with something like an N8 on the walls and the trim was painted with a lighter gray. The ceiling was also painted with the same lighter gray as the trim. It looked very good. For example the walls may have been an N8.25 with the trim and ceiling being an N8.75 or even an N9. You could even go with the N8 (Winter Mountain / Universal Gray) as the wall color and use an N8.6 (Winter Mist / Showfield) for the trim and ceiling.


A simple N8 paint with some Minwax Satin Polycrylic would work well for the screen paint. Black Widow is an excellent option as well. The one advantage a neutral gray + satin poly has over BW is the total control over shade of gray. However with your projector and the room colors being less than ideal, Black Widow should work quite well.


The gray paint + satin poly is a little easier to apply and the ingredients are easier to come by. I would therefore suggest you start with this approach. It will allow you to get a feel for the effects of a neutral gray and develop some screen painting skills. If you then feel the need to go further, you could go on to paint the screen with Black Widow.


Does the ".ca" in your name indicate you live in Canada? Do you have access to a Home Depot and/or Lowes?


Have you found a source for the oversize MDF?

 

[Arken.ca]

I am from Canada. There is a home depot here, but no Lowes in my location. I can get MDF in larger sizes from a place called Windsor Plywood, but now I may just use the wall. The wall looks flat, the only problem is it has white trim down the middle so I would have to rip that off then replace it once I leave. I've been looking into your suggestion of a neutral gray for all walls and I think I might go that route. I'm not sure if I can get the landlord to ok a gray ceiling, though. Will a light gray ceiling make much difference over white?

 

[tiddler]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Arken.ca /forum/post/15407324


I am from Canada. There is a home depot here, but no Lowes in my location. I can get MDF in larger sizes from a place called Windsor Plywood, but now I may just use the wall. The wall looks flat, the only problem is it has white trim down the middle so I would have to rip that off then replace it once I leave. I've been looking into your suggestion of a neutral gray for all walls and I think I might go that route. I'm not sure if I can get the landlord to ok a gray ceiling, though. Will a light gray ceiling make much difference over white?

Anything you can do to minimize light reflected back from the ceiling will help. If you went with an N9 as opposed to a typical ultra white ceiling paint it should have some effect, but I really can't say how much.

 

[kbgl]

What if you screwed a piece of 1/8th inch hardboard to the ceiling, and painted it black. Or maybe you coiuld hang a row of black ceiling tiles. When you move out, all you would have to do is fill in a few screw holes. Some stained trim could be used for the transition. Take a look at Buds setup. Bud416... What is his number?